Google acknowledged the privacy breach in an apology issued last Friday, saying it had been inadvertently storing fragments of people's online activities over the past four years while expanding its mapping feature, "Street View."

The U.S. Internet giant has come under fire from authorities across Europe, where strict privacy laws regulate how much of citizens' personal details may be released or shared without consent. Suspicion that Google was showing too much in its attempts to provide detailed online maps has been aggravated by the breach, noticed by German authorities.

In London, Britain's Information Commissioner's Office joined Germany in calling for Google to destroy the data, although it said it was unlikely that anything more than fragments of data had been collected.

Google has been sending cars equipped with mounted cameras through European streets to take pictures that are then broadcast through the "Street View" map program.